Hello,

Please share and sign this petition to help get the word out.  It may not impact you, but you most likely know a veteran or have one in your family, and they need to see this. 

I am one of almost 250,000 veterans that are a part of the 3M Earplug Lawsuit, which was recently negotiated on August 29, 2023, for $6 billion dollars.  That may sound like a lot of money, but 9%, ($540 million), comes of the top of the settlement for the lead counsel and leadership.  After that, the attorneys will be taking another 40%, ($2.184 billion)!!  That leaves $3.276 billion left for 250,000 veterans which amounts to $13,104 per veteran if split equally.  This is not justice or a fair settlement for veterans who will live with tinnitus and hearing loss for the rest for their lives. 

This lawsuit originated in 2019 after 3M settled a whistleblower allegation with the government that it supplied them with faulty earplugs.  Now that the settlement has been negotiated, I’m not sure it should have happened.  3M lost their bankruptcy bid and their appeals with the 11th circuit where about to be shot down as well.  The lead counsel in this case should have waited another six months and allowed that to play out before accepting a deal.  I would like to address two issues that you can help the nearly 250,000 disabled veterans with that are a part of this settlement.  

The first issue that I would like to address with you is the order that was signed by Judge Rodgers regarding case management order #4 which allocated 9% of the veterans’ settlement to be taken off of the top of each settlement amount and placed in the common benefit fund which then gets paid to lead counsel and leadership.  The 9% fee is for the work that the lead counsel and leadership team did on the cases that went to trial and this work is what was able to get the lawsuit negotiated.  In other multidistrict litigations this 9% fee is paid by the lawyers who didn't go to trial but are benefiting from the lawyers that did go to trial.  

 I strongly encourage you on behalf of the veterans in this settlement to sign this petition and forward it to as many people that you know to get the word out.  I'm asking Judge Rodgers to amend her order and have the 9% fee taken out of the other lawyers’ fees that didn't participate in trials and not place that burden on the veterans.  

The second issue that I would like you to address is helping the veterans in this lawsuit by advocating cutting the current lawyers' fees from their current amount of 40% to a more reasonable amount of 25%-30%.  This is something that can be ordered by Judge Rodgers as well.  In the Camp Lejeune lawsuit, the judge ordered that lawyers' fees would be capped at 25%, so veterans could receive more of the settlement funds.  I ask for your help in this matter because the majority of lawyers have not done anywhere close to the amount of work to satisfy the current amount that they will be getting.  In most cases, the veteran was required to get a copy of their VA records and submit them to their attorney.  Veterans did the majority of the leg work themselves and gathered all of the records and had to provide them to their attorney which are now passing them along to a company that will review them and determine where they will land in the settlement and the amount that they will receive.  The attorneys have not done enough on these cases to justify receiving 40% of the settlement when all they did was pass along records to the court appointed company for them to review.

In closing, I am imploring you to help out the veteran in this settlement and allow us to receive more of the settlement that was meant for us since we have incurred the injuries and will have to live with them for the remainder of our lives.  If these conditions can NOT be met, then sign and share this petition and tell our attorneys to go back to the negotiating table and fight!

If you would like to see other veteran's perspectives on this issue, please have them visit this link as well and join the discussion.  http://disq.us/t/42wl2e4

Sincerely,

Matthew Wobus